Finnish Pancakes

Public holidays in the middle of the week - aren't they just the best? Almost better than weekends if you ask me. One of the few times that I get to sleep late and mooch around the house until 11 am in my pj's. Oh you do that too? Lovely, isn't it? I think if companies started allowing their employees to come to work in their pj's they might get some surprisingly good results. Or alternatively great fodder for the annual company newsletter/bloopers roundup.

Of course days off are also the perfect opportunity to indulge in some breakfast treats. Unfortunately for me, while I am a big fan of the aforementioned breakfast treats, I am not such a big fan of actually preparing the breakfast treats. Which probably explains the corner store right behind our apartment block's huge profits on croissants and the like...

I poached this recipe from Omnomicon a while ago and have made it many times since. It's always been a hit, whether served to guests or inhaled in it's entirety by myself and TheHusband. Okay, fine, mostly by me, as TheHusband is quite happy to subsist on a 100% coffee diet until lunchtime. These pancakes are very low maintenance, so if you're like me, and not too keen on making a big production out of cooking in the mornings, this will become your new go-to recipe.

I serve mine sprinkled liberally with cinnamon and drenched in syrup, but you could also serve it with just a dusting of icing (confectioner's sugar) and it would be equally delicious.

(This post has been updated from the archives and comes with brand spanking new photos. One look at the original photo will make it clear why an update was necessary.)

Finnish Pancakes
Source: Omnomicon
Serves 6

3 tbsp butter, melted
4 eggs
2 c milk
1/2 c flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Put butter into an ovenproof dish and place in the oven for a few minutes to melt.

3. Meanwhile, beat eggs until foamy. Add milk, flour (mixed with some of the milk to form a paste), sugar and salt and mix well to form a smooth batter.

4. Carefully pour into dish on top of the melted butter (the butter will mingle a bit with the batter) and bake for 20 - 23 minutes or until puffy and golden on top.

Note - The pancakes puffs up spectacularly while in the oven, but quickly deflates after you take it out - this is normal and to be expected. It will have no impact on the taste of the finished product.

Nutritional info (per serving): Calories 191.4 Total Fat 10.8 g Saturated Fat 5.7 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.7 g Monounsaturated Fat 3.2 g Cholesterol 163.4 mg Sodium 118.2 mg Potassium 57.8 mg Total Carbohydrate 16.1 g Dietary Fiber 0.5 g Sugars 4.1 g Protein 7.5 g

Krummelpap/Putu Pap (Crumbly porridge)

Long weekends are truly the stuff dreams are made of. You get to recharge, sleep late and best of all indulge in the kind of breakfasts that you never have time for during the week. 

I love a good breakfast, but truth be told, I'm pretty lazy when it comes to cooking so soon after I wake up. Supper I'll do, even lunch, but breakfast, oooh boy I need some strong motivation to find myself with a spoon in the kitchen during the AM hours. 

Some breakfasts are worth it though. Like some deliciously creamy scrambled eggs, perhaps dotted with salmon and piled high on a fresh buttery croissant. Or perhaps some cinnamon-y syrup-y Finnish Pancakes. Even a plain muffin goes down very well when it's fresh and the perfect balance between moistness and crumb. 

While those are all great breakfasts though, few things evoke such wonderful memories as krummelpap(say: krim-mel-pup). Krummelpap is not glamorous, nor is it particularly trendy, but it takes me straight back to my childhood. My my mom used to make a pot of krummelpap whenever we had family visiting (see, this no-cooking thing in the mornings is in the genes) and the smell of the steaming pap never failed to bring a smile to our faces.

The dish was always served with stories of how my mom, as a little girl, used to beg their domestic worker (who was like a second mom to her) to give her some of the porridge she made for her own children in the mornings. And, according to my mom, that's where she learned to eat it with milk and salt instead of sugar. She still eats it that way, and this custom was also adopted by my brother and me. So much so that I can't imagine eating it with sugar (strange, considering my sweet tooth!). 

Such is the power of nostalgia. Sitting at the breakfast table with a bowl of krummelpap on Saturday, it was almost as if I could smell my mom in the tempting aroma of the pap. And it truly felt like home.
 

I'm submitting this to the Monthly Mingle - South Africa created by the fabulous Meeta from What's For Lunch Honey.

Krummelpap 

Slightly adapted from Rainbow Cooking

Serves 4

2 1/2 cups boiling water

a pinch of salt

2 1/2 cups maize meal

1. Add water and salt to a saucepan and bring to a rolling boil. 

2. Add the maize meal to the water, but don't stir (very tempting I know!). Cover with lid, lower heat and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. 

3. Using a fork, fluff the porridge, then cover again and allow to cook for another 30 minutes. Fluff sporadically during this time. A crust will form on the bottom of the pan - this is not a problem and in fact is treasured by many people (including myself). 

4. Serve warm with warmed milk and sugar (as most people from the southern parts of South Africa eats it), or warmed milk and salt (like my mom taught us) for breakfast. It can also be served with tamatiesmoor (a tomato and onion gravy) as side-dish to a braai (barbeque) - the majority of people from the northern parts of South Africa eat it this way.

Nutritional info (per serving): Calories 251.2, Total fat 0.8 g, Saturated fat 0.0 g, Polyunsaturated fat 0.0 g, Monounsaturated fat 0.0 g, Cholesterol 0.0 mg, Sodium 40.3 mg, Potassium 0.0 mg, Total carbohydrate 57.5 g, Dietary fiber 4.3 g, Sugars 0.0 g, Protein 5.8 g

Good source of: Vitamin B6 23.6 %, Thiamin 20.5 %

Apple Pie Smoothie

There aren't many food related things I'm scared of. My recent warthog adventure springs to mind... So when I was faced with a jar of coconut oil, I took it in my stride (even though I'd never even seen it before, never mind used it) and immediately set out to find out how I could use it. I'd heard lots about the health benefits of the oil and was quite curious to try it out to see what all the fuss was about.

That initial fervour gradually died down though. I tried baking with it, but something must've gone horribly wrong (user error?) for my lemon coconut bars did not quite live up to expectations. Edible, yes. In fact, it was pretty darn tasty, but it had some...um... structural problems if you know what I mean. I also found recipes online that advocated frying with the oil, but that didn't really grab my interest. I needed something that would let the oil shine in it's unadulterated form. And that would preferably yield something that would both taste awesome and look great.

Enter my trusty old blender. And a need for a quick grab-'n-go breakfast. Don't we all need those? Blame it on my autumn mojo, but the idea of apple pie in a glass really appealed to me. Not really having a plan except for apples and some vague notion of also wanting to incorporate coconut oil, I set out by peeling some Granny Smiths and allowing them to stew in apple juice until soft. It ended with me taking a lick of the finished product and declaring it "Heavenly". The coconut oil added that extra touch of "mmmm this is good". Not sure about the health benefits in the end, but it definitely tasted like apple pie in a glass. Just what the doctor ordered.

Apple Pie Smoothie

Serves 2

This really is apple pie in a glass (or as close as you're going to get anyway!). The coconut oil, strangely, seemed to really enhance the flavour profile too.

3 apples, peeled and pips removed

1/2 cup plain low fat yogurt

3/4 cup apple juice + 2 tbsp

1/2 cup low fat milk

1/4 cup oats

1 1/2 tbsp coconut oil, melted (allow to cool slightly before using)

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp honey

1. Cook apples in a half cup apple juice until tender and liquid cooked away. 

2. Add apples along with the rest of the ingredients to a blender and blitz until smooth. 

Serve immediately.

Nutritional info (per serving): Calories 383.6 , Total fat 13.8 g, Saturated fat 10.6 g, Polyunsaturated fat 1.0 g, Monounsaturated fat 1.7 g, Cholesterol 8.6 mg, Sodium 227.5 mg, Potassium 682.5 mg, Total carbohydrate 68.6 g, Dietary fiber 10.3 g, Sugars 18.9 g, Protein 7.8 g

Good source of: Manganese 82.3 %, Vitamin C 67.6 %, Calcium 26.7 %, Phosphorus 20.8 %, Vitamin A 20.3 %

Full disclosure: I received Kapruka organic virgin coconut oil in my goodie bag at the South African Food Blogger's Conference. However I was neither asked to nor paid to endorse the product on my blog.